Sepia Tone Image Manipulation

I created this image using The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program), a freely distributed image manipulation program. The same results could just as easily be obtained using Adobe PhotoShop (my image editor of choice) or any other image manipulation program. The original image was a high quality 640x480 pixel JPEG file.

The couple are some friends of mine who were married in Nairobi, Kenya.

1. The original image, after adjusting the levels for correct colour balance and brightness.

2. Duplicate the original image and desaturate the duplicate (i.e. remove the colour information, effectively convert it to grayscale) There are a number of different methods to do this, achieving different results.

3. Add a sepia coloured layer over the grayscale image and set the layer's mode to 'color'. This colourizes the grayscale image underneath.

4. Add a mask to the sepia color layer to only tint the mid-tones and leave the shadows and highlights grayscale.

5. Place a copy of the original colour image on top of the sepia image. Create a mask so that only the flowers are displayed. Reduce the opacity of the layer to mute the flower's colour.

6. Create a white layer on top of the image and cut out the middle of the layer, feathering the edges.